Bush Delivers His Vote For Thompson

Vice President George Bush made a strong pitch Tuesday for the re-election of Gov. James Thompson, who is a possible Bush rival for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination.

Thompson is among seven co-chairmen of Bush`s national political action committee, the Fund for America`s Future, an organization that is laying the groundwork for the vice president`s 1988 bid for the White House.

Even so, Thompson has acknowledged that he is still considering his own presidential bid if he wins re-election this fall to a fourth term over Democrat Adlai Stevenson.

``I can`t think of a governorship that is more important to hold and to win than Jim Thompson`s race this year,`` Bush told a Lincoln Day luncheon audience in Springfield. ``He`s got to do it. I`m confident he will.``

Bush also delivered a ringing endorsement for former Chicago Police Supt. James O`Grady, the Republican candidate for Cook County Sheriff, singling him out as an important, recent convert to the Republican Party.

``I know there are many lifelong Democrats in Chicago who no longer feel at home in their party. . . . Jim switched parties last year. I hope that`s just the beginning. We need more Democrats of conscience to come over to our side.``

National GOP stategists view O`Grady`s race against Sheriff Richard Elrod as one of their more promising opportunities for winning countywide office in a Democratic stronghold.

During Republican fundraising appearances in Chicago and Springfield, Bush spoke about the importance of the 1986 midterm elections, saying that it ``can and must`` be a GOP year for the party to maintain its majority in the U.S. Senate. Bush said that ``traditional values like familiy, faith, community and work`` would be the theme of the 1986 GOP midterm campaign.

In Bush`s first major political swing through Illinois since the 1984 presidential election, the vice president delivered Lincoln Day addresses before the Illinois GOP Central Committee in Springfield and the Cook County Republican party in the Palmer House.

But while speaking about this year`s elections, Bush also was looking ahead to the 1988 Republican presidential race in which he is expected to face stiff competition from more than a half dozen challengers.

``Illinois has to be an absolutely key state in Bush`s strategy,`` said Cook County Republican chairman Donald Totten, who noted that the March, 1988, Illinois primary will follow a Southern regional primary in which Bush could be vulnerable to a more conservative challenger. ``Jack Kemp could come in here with a real head of steam. So Illinois will be important to Bush,``

Totten said.

Totten said Tuesday night that Bush`s appearance at a reception and fundraising dinner grossed about $200,000 for the Cook County GOP.

Prior to a reception and dinner in the Palmer House, Bush held private meetings with local GOP leaders, including Totten.

Bush was virtually eliminated from the 1980 Republican presidential race after a distant third-place finish in the Illinois primary behind President Reagan and former U.S. Rep. John Anderson (R., Rockford). One of the reasons that Bush ran poorly in Illinois, while edging out Reagan during Republican presidential contests in neighboring Iowa and Michigan, was that the vice president had little organization in the state.

In recently announcing the Illinois members of his political organization`s steering committee, Bush has served notice to his political rivals that he is giving priority to Illinois.